Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

Recovery Coaches Tap Into Own Experience To Help Those With Opioid Addictions

Several states are implementing programs centered around counselors who have been through the experience themselves. “My job is to open myself up and be like a toolbox for them,” Tarik Arafat says. In other news, a son's final letter to his parents reveals the painful struggle of getting sober, and Ohio's lieutenant governor talks about how the epidemic has hit close to home for him.

Stateline:
Coaching Overdose Survivors To Avoid The Next One
Nationwide, tens of thousands of opioid overdose victims have been saved over the last two decades by first responders, friends, family and bystanders who administered naloxone, an opioid overdose antidote. But the majority of those who are rescued from near death go back to using drugs as soon as they leave the hospital, pushed by the brutal withdrawal symptoms that accompany an opioid overdose reversal. (Vestal, 6/2)

Courier-Journal:
The Last Words Of A 'Heroin Junkie': There Seems To Be No Escape
Adam Cooley died mid-sentence.The young man couldn't have known the danger as he reclined in bed at his parents' Pleasure Ridge Park home, writing a thank you note to a family friend. On the eve of what was to be a long rehabilitation stay, and hopefully a final lifeline, the longtime heroin user did what many addicts do — he went on one last bender. But this time, in what would be the 27-year-old's last snort, something more potent and much more dangerous was hidden inside. (Warren, 6/1)

The Associated Press:
Ohio's Lieutenant Governor Reveals Sons' Opioid Addictions
Ohio's lieutenant governor revealed Thursday that her two sons have struggled with opioid addiction, adding her family to the thousands affected by the nation's prescription painkiller and heroin epidemic. "Like many Ohioans, my family is struggling with addiction, and the opiate crisis has, you know, it's come in my front door," Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor said in making the revelation to the Dayton Daily News. (Carr Smyth, 6/1)

The Hill:
Ohio Lieutenant Governor Shares Sons' Addiction To Opioids
Ohio Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor (R) revealed how the opioid crisis became personal for her, opening up about her two sons’ addictions in an interview with the Dayton Daily News published on Thursday. “I know people who have lost their kids. I’ve been to a funeral of somebody, a young person, who died of a heroin overdose. It’s not pretty. Until we found the treatment that worked for [our sons], the voice of worry was very loud and it was very scary. Very scary,” Taylor said. The lieutenant governor said one of her sons is currently undergoing treatment, but both are doing well. (Manchester, 6/1)

In other news on the crisis —

The Columbus Dispatch:
Ohio Lawsuit May Yet Include Drug Distributors
Ohio is going after drug manufacturers to help clean up the state’s deadly opioid epidemic, but major drug distributors — including Cardinal Health of Dublin — are not part of Ohio’s current legal action. That hasn’t been the case elsewhere, including West Virginia, which went after Cardinal and other distributors; the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, which recently sued Cardinal, two other distributors and three drug store chains; and the Drug Enforcement Administration, which has reached settlements with Cardinal that date back nearly a decade. (Johnson, 6/2)

Des Moines Register:
Addiction Treatment Agency Admits Suit Against Wellmark Was 'Without Merit'
An addiction treatment agency that treated hundreds of people in the Polk County Jail is dropping a bitter legal fight with the state’s largest health insurer. The treatment agency, St. Gregory’s, and the insurer, Wellmark Blue Cross & Blue Shield, accused each other last year of multimillion-dollar fraud. They announced Thursday in a joint statement that they were ending the dispute. The statement said St. Gregory's admitted its claims of misconduct by the insurer were "without merit." (Leys, 6/1)

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